Gophers down Trojans, finish 7-1;
Face Dover-Eyota in first found

The Chatfield Gopher football team finished the regular season with 7-1 record, capping it off with a convincing 30-14 win over the Rushford-Peterson Trojans.

Chatfield totally dominated Rushford-Peterson in the win, and had it not been for the fine 'special teams' play of the Trojans, the game would have been even more 'lopsided' than the 'stats' show.

Chatfield had 14 first downs to Rushford-Peterson's five. The Gophers ran 63 plays to the Trojans 33 and the locals totaled 299 yards of offense, to just 159 yards for R-P.

Rushford-Peterson 'countered' the dominating offense stats with four kickoff returns of 59 yards, 78 yards, 11 yards, and 58 yards. The 78 yard'er was returned for a touchdown. "R-P's kick - return was stellar all night," said Coach Jeff Johnson. "They created problems for our kick-coverage."

"However," continued Johnson, "I thought we executed, offensively, the best we have all year. Everything was clicking. The 'O' line blocked and sustained blocks all night. That was one of the better defensive teams we've faced and we put up 30 points. They just flat-out, out-played a very good Rushford-Peterson team Wednesday night."

On offense, Jake Neis led the team with 157 yards on 27 carries, and one touchdown (14 yds). Alex Haffner carried the ball six times and picked up 40 yards. Seven other Gophers also had carries, including; Justin Viss (5/8, 3 yd. TD), Jayme LaPlante (1/17, 17 yd TD), Nate Skare (5/6, 4 yd TD), Alex Bradt (5/21), Ryan Meeker (2/7), Cody Bly (2/-1) and Drew Hurley (2/-1). Skare was 3/4 in extra-point kicks and also had a 27 yard field goal in the third quarter.

Quarterback Nate Skare was 4/7 in passing, for 47 yards. He threw one interception. Jake Neis was 0/1 in the passing department, which also went for an interception. Receiving the passes were Jayme LaPlante (2/26), Reid Danielson (1/19) and Justin Viss (1/2).

Defensively, Dalton Schwier led the team with 31 points, including two qb sacks and an INT. Tommy Jech also had a qb sack and Jake Neis had a fumble recovery.

Chatfield drew the #3 seed in the Section 1AA playoffs, and will host Dover-Eyota (#6, 1-7) Tuesday night. "Dover-Eyota can be a tricky team to play,." said Coach Johnson. "They have many formations and a couple of offensive weapons that could hurt you in a hurry," he concluded. In other words, don't look past the Eagles!